Will this work with my (very old gen3) ipod?

I have had my ipod since 2003 and it has been working fine for me ever since. I understand that to transfer my songs from my ipod to a mac, I will need to download a specific type of software for that to work. I do not want to lose the music that is currently on there (approx. 3000), but do want to transfer to my new macbook pro. Will the Thunderbolt read my ipod?

2 Answers from the Community

The 3rd Generation iPod was the first model to feature a dock connector, and had the play/pause, menu, forward, and back buttons in a line above the touch wheel.

You can Identify your iPod Model at Apple Support KB article HT1353

If this is the case, any USB or Firewire 400 to Dock Connector cable should be OK to use, just use a USB one, and plug it directly into your MacBook.

If you have a first or 2nd generation iPod (With a physical wheel, or a touch wheel with buttons arranged around the wheel (but not on the wheel) and with a FireWire port on the top of the unit (no dock connector) you will additionally need a Firewire 400 to Firewire 800 cable. You can plug the FW400 end into the iPod, and the FireWire 800 end will fit into this accessory. You can then use a specialist piece of software to extract the music from your iPod.

I just bought this adapter so I could hook up my 3rd Generation iPod to my new Macbook air, but I need a second adapter (Firewire 800 male to Firewire 400 female - I have a "Micro Accessories APL-1369-AD-01" which is about CAD$10).

The cable that came with my 3rd Gen iPod has a Firewire 400 male end. I can plug that into the Firewire 400 female port on my Micro Accessories adapter, and plug the Firewire 800 male end on that into the Firewire 800 port on this (Apple Thunderbolt to Firewire) adapter.

It does work, *although it takes a couple of minutes* for my computer and the iPod to start talking to each other. Eventually, the iPod shows up as a device on the desktop and iTunes launches and syncs with it — everything works well.

Software versions are OS/X v. 10.8.5 and iTunes 11.0.5 (5) on the Macbook Air, and the iPod report's it's Firmware version is 2.3.